Beijing is taking the lead in the digital economy and aims to form a new type of digital development environment, according to guests at a subvenue of the 2021 Global Digital Economy Conference in the city's Daxing district held in early August.

Fan Ye, an official from the intelligent manufacturing division at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that manufacturing is fundamental to the country's strength and the ministry has formulated plan for intelligent production during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

Li Tao, an inspector from the Beijing Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said the city has so far developed the digital economy well and will establish a whole industrial chain involving data generation, collection, transaction, consumption and application.

The city government will make digital technology innovation an impetus, foster data-driven industrial clusters and form a new type of digital development environment, Li said.

Zhou Liyun, Party secretary of Beijing's Daxing district, signed agreements with representatives from 10 digital economy companies at the event.

Daxing, a new economic engine in southern Beijing, is in a key period of opening-up and innovation, and the cooperation with such businesses will boost the regional economy in areas such as attracting resources, innovation and technological support.

The district recently released a three-year action plan for the innovative development of the digital economy starting from 2021. It comprises seven key fields, including digital trade, digital healthcare, digital culture, digital infrastructure construction and the integrated application of digital technologies.

Shen Changxiang, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the digital economy offers great opportunities but has cybersecurity challenges.

The development of digitization should insist on independent innovation, boast internationally key technologies and ensure internet security, Shen said.

Yan Kesheng, vice-president at tech company Xiaomi, said the company's smart factories in Beijing rely on its self-developed intelligent equipment and systems and integrate with advanced cellphone manufacturing techniques.

Based on technologies including the internet of things, 5G, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence, they have developed into high-quality and sustainable factories with high-level automation, he said.

Zhang Chi, deputy general manager of a company based in the Beijing Sino-Japanese innovation cooperation demonstration zone, said the zone in Daxing will cooperate with teams from the two countries and focus on three sectors－medicine and health, advanced manufacturing and digital economy－to develop innovative industrial clusters.

The zone is planning innovative cooperation among digital cities, Zhang said, adding that it wants to promote the synchronized development of physical and digital cities and build itself into a digital urban area boasting intelligent manufacturing industries.